Geraint M Jones
Location: West Clare
Facilitates workshops.
Speaks at events.
Speaks to writer groups.
Speaks to book clubs.
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Bio
Born in South Wales, my parents took me to what is now Zambia at the age of three months. My father was a contractor with the Overseas Development Agency and, given that I refused to go to boarding school in the UK, I was educated in Uganda, Malaysia South Africa and the UK.
I was a participant in the conflict in the country now called Zimbabwe in the 1970s. My work gave me insights into and empathy for both sides of the conflict, a capacity I applied in other conflict and post conflict-environments, including Afghanistan, South Africa and The Sahel.
For fifteen years I was a diplomatic security advisor for the EU and the UK governments, mostly in conflict-afflicted and fragile environments in Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan. I am using the experience I gained for my future novels, two of which I have already started work on.
My Irish wife and I moved to Ireland in 2023, and I completed my last assignment with the FCDO in Israel in 2024. I am now concentrating on full time writing in my study overlooking the Shannon Estuary.
Books
Beyond The Fever Trees
Set in the country that is now called Zimbabwe, the book tells the story, loosely based on fact, of a guerrilla infiltration, aimed at launching attacks into the white heartland, and is told from the perspective of both the guerrillas and the government forces sent to intercept them.
War is violent, so the narrative deals with violence, with death and with the harm that is done in the course of conflict. However, the focus is on the personal experiences of the characters on both sides. The book starkly examines the moral dilemmas and sacrifices, both personal and those that take the lives of others, and the causes and consequences of the actions of individuals involved, and of the two opposing sets of forces.
Originally the book was intended to be a sequel to a novel I published several years ago, but it swiftly developed a mind of its own and became a stand-alone book. I confess that the outcome is ambiguous, leaving readers to make up their own minds about the rights and wrongs of the story as well as the possible consequences of the events that take place.
Readers have described it as raw, gritty and compelling, projecting the reader into the heat, dust and trauma of war in Africa.
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